If you have either a lot of bandwidth or a lot of time, there is a nice amusing feature on cultural demographics called Psycho-Graphics at the CBC’s 120seconds.com (see my earlier comments about the site).

However, as is the evil nature of Flash websites, I can’t provide you a simple link to it! ARGH!* You’ll have to go to the front of the site and look for the feature called “Psycho-Graphics” yourself.

Jeffrey Zeldman, for those who don’t know, is the poster boy of independent content development on the web. His site, Zeldman.com, is fine example of an intelligent person writing interesting things. It’s not a navel-gazing blog site (although there are some great ones out there).

Read this great account of a web awards gala where Zeldman’s site is recognized along with a load of dot-com companies (this was a few years back, dot-commies were like Jean Cabot, telling the king that the waters off Newfoundland have so much fish you can almost walk on the water).

The best part is a conversation Zeldman has with a woman:

“What is your company?” says the bolder of the two. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s a personal site,“ I say.

She brightens. “Oh, you mean like dating services?”

“No, I mean there’s no company, it’s just me. It’s entertainment for the Web.”

“Ah. Who supplies your entertainment content?”

“I do. I supply the entertainment content.”

She says, “What is your revenue model?”

I say, “I don’t have one.”

Where are they now? Zeldman is about to publish his book and his website is still a staple of independent content development.

Rehashing a few old posts, I will remind you of some great things.

First of all, go visit explodingdog.com. If you haven’t been there before, I assure you that it has nothing to do with exploding dogs. Rather it is a site of fantastic illustrations that will make you laugh and cry (the happy kind). If you have been there before, go again.

Then, if you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list. We’ll only send you brilliant emails.

Finally, email us. Tell us how much you love/hate us (be specific). Suggestions, submissions, compliments, and insults are welcome: thegeniuses@actsofvolition.com

It has to be at least a dollar actually. But is that too much to ask for our sharp humour and cunning witticisms? No, it is not.

Amazon.com has set up a new system called the Amazon Honor System which is the electronic equivalent of throwing money in to our hat as we amuse you on the sidewalk of [lame cyber-analogy censored].

The system allows an independent website (like our humble aov) to put a cute little (actually quite large) graphic on their page that when clicked will allow viewers to pay the site authors for their brilliance. Transactions are a minimum of $1 and maximum of $50. Amazon takes a 15% cut in exchange for handling the transaction.

Stay calm though! Keep your plastic in your pockets! You can’t give us money yet. You need a U.S. Checkings Account for Amazon to pay you (and U.S. bank accounts are hard to come by on Prince Edward Island).

Those wacky folks at Amazon (or at least the wacky remaining 85%) are always cooking up cool new schemes. The Amazon Purchase Circles are another cool one (especially for you privacy buffs). You can view popular products by employer (Microsoft seems to be quite self-interested). The Amazonians must be trying to keep busy to avoid killing Jeff Bezos for his incredibly annoying laugh.

Saw waydowntown at City Cinema* last night. Excellent movie. Smart, stylish, and very funny (kind of like matt).

The movie is about a group of friends who make a bet to see who can live in the connected office building apartment complex in which they work and live without going outside for one month. Having once spent three days in Halifax at a conference without breathing fresh air (the two main hotels, the conference center, and of course, the casino are all connected), I was having retroactive claustrophobia.

   View the trailer »
 

Chapters.ca used to be a good ecommerce site. It’s relatively easy to use (thanks to a heavy amazon.com influence) and your orders would actually arrive. This is no longer the case. The site is still quite good, but don’t expect your orders to actually arrive. Here’s my timeline (complete with pertinent news):

• January 18th
  Ordered two books from Chapters.ca.
   
• January 19th – 29th
  Sat around waiting for my books.
   
• January 30th
  Now disgruntled, I cancelled my orders from Chapters.ca and re-ordered the books from Indigo.ca.
   
• February 1st (that’s only two days later for those of you who aren’t too strong in the maths)
  My two books arrived from Indigo.ca.
   
• Also on February 1st
  Indigo.ca squashes Chapters.ca, rendering my complaint somewhat useless.

Bottom line: Order from Indigo.ca, not Chapters.ca (not that it matters anymore).

I’ve never felt so old in my life*. The Sum41/Treble Charger concert at The UPEI Barn was like being at a junior high sock-hop (only with more piercings and pot). The opening band, Sum41 can be summed up as: Blink 183. They couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old and judging by their appearance, this is what the kids came to see. They actually looked like the audience: spiked/dyed hair, big pants, and novelty t-shirts. To call them unoriginal, while true, would be to miss the point completely. They were fine entertainers. The drummer lit his drumsticks on fire, literally. It was amazing.

Treble Charger’s set was good, as always, but seemed like a bit of an act. They are a smart and quirky pop-rock band. Unfortunately, their latest album and tour find them focusing more on the “pop-rock” and less on the “smart and quirky”. They pandered to the young crowd successfully, but it was transparent. Sum41 can get away with juvenile-behaviour-as-entertainment because they are actually juveniles. Treble Charger, on the other hand, came across like smart old guys pretending to be young and stupid.

That said, hearing the old Treble Charger songs from self = title is always a pleasure. A few years of touring have turned songs like Red and Morale beautifully polished pieces.

What’s this? Eminem and Limp Bizkit on the P.A.? When I was a kid we listen to real rock and roll. I’m going to go listen to Siamese Dream now.

Living in the world of Napster has an unexpected side effect. The Blinking Search Effect (I’m still working on the name – email me if you have a better suggestion). You find yourself staring at the blinking cursor in the search field and draw a blank. You can find anything your greedy little heart desires but you can’t think of a single thing to search for. It’s overwhelming.

This paradigm (well, it is a paradigm, isn’t it?) is not conducive to finding new artists (since you can’t search for something you haven’t heard of).

Thanks to Jevon Mac for breaking me out of my slump with a tip to check out Dashboard Confessional. If you can get past the vocalist’s remarkable similarity to the singer from the Ghandarvas this is a great album. The songs are simple and the voice is always on the point of breaking, but doesn’t. The album is called Swiss Army Romance and I recommend starting with Age Six Racer.

Our logs are a constant source of amusement. Here are a few words that led people to aov through the search engines:

• “Odd Penis”
• “I’m afraid of Americans”
• “Arguments”
• “Athlete advertisements”

I can’t explain the “Odd Penis” but I think the “Athlete advertisements” may have something to do with matt’s affinity with Joanne Malar.

The search engines are always humorously misleading people to our site. View some previous keywords.